Eighty One
The Excelsior Hotel
45 W. 81st St. (Columbus Ave.)
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New York, NY 10024
212-873-8181 | Make Restaurant Reservations
Cuisine
Open
Dinner nightlyFeatures
- Romantic setting
- Private room(s)
- Full bar
- Reservations suggested
- Dressy
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Chef-owner Ed Brown, who spent 14 years at the Sea Grill, governs a few miles upriver with this Upper West Side eatery set within The Excelsior Hotel. Enter through a cozy and elegant bar area into the low-ceilinged dining room dotted with crimson circular banquettes and red accents. Resembling a bright green satin veil, the chilled fava bean and pea soup refreshes. Scallop and foie gras ravioli prove that opposites attract and can work wonders together, but a limp so-called “cured” tuna still needs to coalesce. The moist lamb two ways is a double winner, the rack roasted crisp and the loin slow-poached in olive oil, while the swordfish a la plancha over a Meyer lemon salad speaks of tangy and summery shores. A bland morsel of cod lies under a flood of fried shallots and the eye-catching dessert plates, such as a melon, yuzu and honey panna cotta, leave taste buds craving more action. |

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Chef-owner Ed Brown, who spent 14 years at the Sea Grill, governs a few miles upriver with this Upper West Side eatery set within The Excelsior Hotel. Enter through a cozy and elegant bar area into the low-ceilinged dining room dotted with crimson circular banquettes and red accents. Resembling a bright green satin veil, the chilled fava bean and pea soup refreshes. Scallop and foie gras ravioli prove that opposites attract and can work wonders together, but a limp so-called “cured” tuna still needs to coalesce. The moist lamb two ways is a double winner, the rack roasted crisp and the loin slow-poached in olive oil, while the swordfish a la plancha over a Meyer lemon salad speaks of tangy and summery shores. A bland morsel of cod lies under a flood of fried shallots and the eye-catching dessert plates, such as a melon, yuzu and honey panna cotta, leave taste buds craving more action. 


